Illinois looking at different concealed carry rules for Cook County

April 22, 2013|By Ray Long | Clout Street

(Tribune illustration)

SPRINGFIELD — People who want to carry a concealed weapon in Chicago and elsewhere in Cook County would get an extra layer of scrutiny under legislation being drafted in the Illinois Senate, according to the authors of the proposal.

The legislation is aimed at balancing the desire of many gun owners to have a statewide concealed carry permit and avoid running into a patchwork of local laws throughout the state that could be confusing for law enforcement and for gun owners.

It is an attempt to recognize the various “sensitivities” about guns in high-density populations like Chicago and suburban Cook, said Sen. Kwame Raoul, a South Side Democrat.

The state faces a court-imposed deadline to fashion a concealed weapons law by June 9. Last week, the House defeated both a strict concealed weapons bill backed by gun control advocates and a less-restrictive measure backed by gun rights lawmakers.

Seeking middle ground, Raoul said the legislation he is crafting with Republican Sen. Tim Bivins, a former sheriff from Downstate Dixon, would require a person seeking a statewide concealed carry permit to check boxes on the application if he wants to carry in Chicago and elsewhere in Cook.

Checking the boxes for the city and Cook would trigger a review by Illinois State Police as well as law enforcement in Chicago and Cook, Raoul said.

If applicants opted to leave unchecked the boxes for the city and Cook, they could get a permit that would be good for the rest of Illinois if the State Police approved, Raoul said.

Rep. Brandon Phelps, the leading voice of gun owner rights in Springfield, said the Raoul plan does not go “far enough” because it gives Chicago and Cook County officials too much leeway. Phelps, D-Harrisburg, pushed the less-restrictive concealed carry bill that failed in the House last week.

Still perfecting the bill’s finer points, Raoul and Bivins said they expect the final version would let people with concealed carry permits for outside of Cook to travel through the county on their way to Wisconsin or Indiana, for example, as long as the guns are properly secured.